The Lone Biscuit

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I won't have time to properly run this experiment (and document it with photos) until later in the week, but I did the math today:

2 tablespoons flour
a pinch of salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp (short) sugar
1 1/2 tsp (= 1/2 tablespoon) shortening (butter is okay)
2 tsp milk

I couldn't help myself; I'm a programmer in Real Life.

― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 02:55 (twenty years ago)

I want to see you cut half a pat of butter into 2 tablespoons of flour!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 03:31 (twenty years ago)

OK, I am also tempted to give this a try. Let's pick a day and have a bake-off. I'll try to score a camera.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 03:33 (twenty years ago)

Me too. I will document the process photographically.

(In fact, I may do it this weekend if no bake-off date appears)

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 09:59 (twenty years ago)

These are your American breakfasty fluffy scone-type biscuit things, yes? I could also join in.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 11:27 (twenty years ago)

I assumed that's what they were too, mainly because of the context of Tep's post on the other thread that sparked this. I guess I need to check exactly how they got baked, in that case.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 11:32 (twenty years ago)

Yep, they're scone type things. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 425 F.

Saturday or Sunday works for me, or some night this week. Get out your razor blades and mirrors!

― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 11:46 (twenty years ago)

Oh dear.

― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 11:56 (twenty years ago)

I'll give it a go on Sat. or Sun.; I should be past the 14-hour workdays by then. Sounds like fun! Maybe I'll stick a frozen biscuit at the other end of the baking sheet as a "control group."

― William Crump (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 13:11 (twenty years ago)

Here's the recipe, from the venerable Fanny Farmer:

Sift your dry ingredients together. Cut the shortening into the dry with two knives or a pastry cutter until the mixture looks like coarse meal. Add the milk all at once and stir just until the dough gathers into a ball around the fork. Knead on a lightly floured board 14 times. Pat into a 1/2" (13 mm) thick circle (approx. 2" (51 mm) diameter). Bake in a greased pan, 425 F (215 C) for 15-20 minutes.

― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 13:19 (twenty years ago)

I'm going to suggest we do this on Sunday.

"Knead 14 times"? That's strangely specific.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 16:19 (twenty years ago)

I love this thread title.
14 times sounds like too much kneading for a lone biscuit--just glare at it until it folds over. Biscuit dough is very sensitive.

― Orbit (Orbit), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 21:15 (twenty years ago)

That's true, the 14 kneads is for the full recipe, which makes 16 biscuits, so we should knead only 7/8ths of a knead for the lone biscuit.

Fanny Farmer = the queen of precise measurement. Before her, no one could be sure what was meant by a cup, exactly.

― Jaq (Jaq), Thursday, 14 October 2004 00:19 (twenty years ago)

No one in America, at least.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 14 October 2004 01:06 (twenty years ago)

It's amazing we can bake at all.
European precision takes all the mystery out of it!

― Orbit (Orbit), Thursday, 14 October 2004 20:04 (twenty years ago)

So was the Lone Biscuit baked?

― Orbit (Orbit), Friday, 15 October 2004 19:37 (twenty years ago)

The Lone Biscuit bake-off is this Sunday I think. I've got my micro-pastry cutter prepped :)

― Jaq (Jaq), Friday, 15 October 2004 20:02 (twenty years ago)

SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!

I have a photographer at the ready.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 16 October 2004 03:52 (twenty years ago)

Am I the first? OK then...

Cutting the butter in too far longer than I expected, and the dough was kind of wet... bearing this in mind, and the kneading advice, I just rolled it a bit in the flour on the board to get it ready-ish. It went into the oven looking OK...

I'd love to be able to show you the photos of the results, but having eaten the evidence I've plugged the media card in and it didn't take the photos of it... actually, that's not true. I've put the card in the camera and I can see them - just that my card reader can't. Anyway, to cut a long story short, it came out looking like a cookie. Oven to hot, I think as it was a bit too fluffy in the middle and burnt on the bottom. Tasted OK though.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Sunday, 17 October 2004 11:10 (twenty years ago)

Whoo hoo! It's done and consumed. Turned out fine, but it's a hell of a lot easier to cut the shortening in to a larger quantity of dry stuff. Baked at 400 F for 13 minutes was about right; the bottom got a bit brown. The exterior was nice and crispy and the inside soft and flakey though.

Aldo, your dough looks way too wet. Maybe teaspoons are bigger over there than here. (1 tsp ~ 5 ml). Glad it tasted okay.

― Jaq (Jaq), Sunday, 17 October 2004 19:06 (twenty years ago)

Yup, that looks absolutely nothing like mine did. I notice your oven was cooler than mine (I followed Fanny Farmer's temperature guide above) and you cooked it for slightly less too. Maybe the high-sided baking pan was an issue, I don't know.

I may try this again later in the week and experiment with the oven temperature and the quantities - too much butter is possible in mine I suppose (and would have led to what I saw), although it looks about the same as yours from the photo and was as at the top of the page.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Sunday, 17 October 2004 20:06 (twenty years ago)

When I use the dark pans, I have to lower the temp by about 25 degrees. Usually, I crowd 8 biscuits into a cake pan, with their sides touching, so maybe there's something to the higher sides that reflects the heat.

I checked it at the 5 minute and 10 minute mark to see how it was going - it was nearly done at 10 minutes so I just gave it the additional 3 to finish browning up a bit. I also think using butter makes it easier to over-brown, especially the bottom.

― Jaq (Jaq), Sunday, 17 October 2004 20:20 (twenty years ago)

I used the Joy of Cooking recipe, and my friend and I just split it -- it was a little dry and crumbly, which surely has to do with the butter-cutting action (which I mostly ended up doing with my fingertips). Pictures to come.

The Joy of Cooking recipe for one biscuit:

5 tsp flour
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/32 tsp salt
1/4 tbs butter
scant 2 tsp milk
melted butter to brush on the top

Whisk dry ingredients, cut in butter, add milk, shape, put on an ungreased baking sheet, cook at 450 for 10 minutes or so.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 17 October 2004 20:53 (twenty years ago)

It looks like you guys got bigger biscuits than I did -- mine was 2 inches across and 1/2 inch deep.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 17 October 2004 20:58 (twenty years ago)

Pre-baking mine was about 2.5" across and 1/2" thick. It raised up quite a bit in the oven, probably due to the higher proportion of baking powder to flour. It was well over 1" high when baked, but I don't think much bigger around.

― Jaq (Jaq), Sunday, 17 October 2004 21:43 (twenty years ago)

The photos are wonderful!

― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 17 October 2004 22:56 (twenty years ago)

Mine didn't turn out well — they* didn't rise at all, even though I bought a fresh can of baking powder. I have photos, but I'd rather not post any, because the results were so disappointing.

*I made one with regular 2% milk and one with buttermilk, mixed in separate bowls. The sweet milk biscuit rose fractionally higher than the buttermilk biscuit, which was the same height coming out of the oven as it was going in.

I'll take the frozen biscuits from now on.

― William Crump (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 17 October 2004 23:15 (twenty years ago)

Jaq, your photo essay is great!

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Sunday, 17 October 2004 23:45 (twenty years ago)

...the results were so disappointing

Alas! Well, if and when you are in the southeastern part of Washington, I'll make up a batch for you.

Thanks Rabin for the kudos - I will pass them on to the photographer/page layer-outer/partial biscuit consumer.

― Jaq (Jaq), Monday, 18 October 2004 01:48 (twenty years ago)

There are a few process pictures waiting to be processed, but here's the finished product:

ihttp://www.flim.com/artisan/archives/lonebiscuit-sm.jpg

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 20 October 2004 06:24 (twenty years ago)

Oooo - that looks like a scrumptious specimen.

― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 20 October 2004 13:15 (twenty years ago)

It made a better photo than a biscuit, alas.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 20 October 2004 17:04 (twenty years ago)

Two more photos of the process are here: http://www.flim.com/artisan/archives/000086.html

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 20 October 2004 19:22 (twenty years ago)

This thread is my favorite thing ever.

― Orbit (Orbit), Wednesday, 20 October 2004 22:36 (twenty years ago)

That's one lonely biscuit in your oven shot, Casuistry! What a fun experiment this was.

― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 20 October 2004 22:47 (twenty years ago)

Your website is very cool, Jaq.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 21 October 2004 14:00 (twenty years ago)

**blushing**

Thanks! We redesigned about a month ago.

― Jaq (Jaq), Thursday, 21 October 2004 17:05 (twenty years ago)

Off sick, so I had another go today. Cut the butter in by hand, cut the milk down to 1 1/2 tsp and turned the oven down to 190. Dough much, much drier than before. Turned out as a real success this time - tasted great and looked good too. Even the bottom escaped significant browning.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/take2_1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/take2_2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/take2_3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/take2_4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/take2_5.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/take2_6.jpg

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 22 October 2004 13:12 (twenty years ago)

Aldo, that dough looks alot more like it. Whoohoo! for the Lone Biscuit! What I'm excited about is making just 4 biscuits, or just 6, which is more like it for the two of us, rather than the 16 the full recipe makes.

― Jaq (Jaq), Friday, 22 October 2004 15:32 (twenty years ago)

ps. Hope you feel better soon. Or, that it was a mental health day.

― Jaq (Jaq), Friday, 22 October 2004 16:14 (twenty years ago)

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